Gifts
by apollosspear
Summary: Kara is back from the "dead" and is depressed. Someone wants to change that.


**Set during season 4 up to "Look Whats Coming to Dinner"**

**Kara/Lee pairing**

**No Spoilers**

**Thanks to my awesome beta JASU**

The first time Kara got something, she almost missed it. The guard had just given her a tray of processed algae and then stood there for a minute. Kara gave an annoyed sigh and looked up at the guard, grunting a "What?" to her. The female marine just smiled and shook her head before leaving the cell and Kara to her meal.

When she finished eating, Kara picked up the unused napkin to wipe her mouth when she noticed that it was folded in an odd way and was heavy. Kara unfolded the napkin and a small wrapped piece of chocolate fell into her hand. She stared at it for a minute, not really believing that it was real.

"Who would have given me chocolate?" she wondered, thinking that it would be extremely difficult to find, as it was probably one of the last little treasures of home left in the fleet. No, in the universe. The admiral wouldn't have given it to her; he was still pissed at her for pulling the gun on the President. He also thought that she might be a Cylon.

Maybe Sam? Except he hadn't even visited her since she had been thrown in hack. She had heard that he was two-timing her with Seelix, and that weird girl Tory that helped the President. "Useless tool" she thought. She figured he really hadn't missed her that much after her "death." Not like Lee apparently had. _"Don't think about that," _she thought. Gods, she was seriously thinking that divorcing Anders wasn't as big of a sin as she once thought, especially when it was glaringly obvious that neither of them really loved the other.

Kara was now comfortable calling Anders what he really was - what he had always been. An easy, safe, frak that was a way for her to avoid the absolutely overwhelming feelings she had for Lee Adama. She was beginning to accept what she felt for Lee. She loved him, even more than she had loved Zak. It was frightening, but also comforting that in some way, Lee returned her feelings. But he was on another path right now. How could she act on those feelings?

"Well back to the mystery at hand," she thought. Anders and the Admiral were two possibilities down. Helo couldn't have given it to her, since he couldn't even find the suckers he loved so much. That left Lee. But it couldn't have been him. He was too busy with the Quorum…and his divorce. She felt a twinge of shame at how happy she was that Lee was divorcing Dualla. Kara knew why he had married her. Hell, she knew Lee started seeing her because she'd been with Anders. And she'd only been with Sam because of what Lee had said after the Baltar incident. Kara shuddered in disgust just thinking the name Gaius Baltar. She shook her head just thinking about it as the whole situation started to give her a headache.

Needing a distraction, she unwrapped the chocolate and popped it in her mouth as the guard came back for her tray. Kara savored the melting sweet as it washed away the lingering taste of algae. A small moan of delight escaped her lips and she tossed the wrapper on the tray as the guard picked it up. That was when she noticed that the wrapper had writing on it. Her mouth was full of chocolate and the marine was gone before she could swallow enough to ask her for the wrapper back. She was able to make out some letters, but they just confused her more. What could "**L.K.T.**" stand for?

Once the admiral agreed to let her look for the way to Earth, Kara forgot all about the mystery of the chocolate and the writing in the wrapper. But it all came back to her when she almost frakked Anders again.

She had been desperate. All she felt was disgrace and desperation because she could not find the way to Earth. She didn't know what to do. She was lost and the crew knew it. She heard their rumblings, especially when they murmured that she could be a Cylon. They were running out of time and it scared her that she had no idea what she was going to tell the old man. She also greatly missed Lee. It was different than when she was in the brig, she knew where he was then, that he was safe. Out here, she didn't know anything.

That was when Anders came to her, in the time when she felt numb to everything. He came under the guise of talking about what she was doing. She had been spending more and more time in her quarters painting. She had started it as a way to vent her desperation. Kara had found the paints there as if they were waiting for her. So she began painting the things she had seen the first time she had been to Earth. The images were the pathway, the comet and the gas giant were the start. She just didn't know how to find them. She was so caught up in the painting that she didn't even question why the captain of a refuse scow had paints and fine brushes to paint with.

When Anders came looking for answers, she gave him some, though not the ones he wanted. She was so dejected that she told him exactly what he was to her. She told him that he really didn't mean anything to her, that she had only chosen him because he was the safe and easy option. How could she get hurt when she really didn't care what he did? He had grabbed her and kissed her, and she had kissed him back because she wanted to feel anything but the shame at her failure.

Then he accidentally kicked over one of the paint cans. She broke off the kiss to save as much of the paint as possible. The paint was blue, her most precious color since it reminded her of Lee. She screamed at Anders to get out as she tried to save the spilled paint, and she vaguely heard the hatch slam shut as she worked. She wiped the tears that she did not realize were falling with the backs of her hands. Then she noticed something strange. The can of blue paint had letters written on it with the same color paint as in the can. She picked up the can and looked at the letters that had not been covered by paint.

There was an **L** and an **A**, and finally before the spilled paint on the can covered the rest of the odd message, was a second **L**. Kara shook her head and tried to wipe away the paint to see what else was written but all it did was tear the label underneath, ruining whatever was there. The mystery did calm her by taking her mind off of things. That calm allowed her to focus on what she needed to do, especially when Leoben came aboard with his frakking mind games.

The third time she received a gift was right after taking the Six that called herself Natalie to speak to the Quorum. She had looked at Lee in his civilian suit from the corner of her eyes and almost gasped at the sight. He had seen her in the brig wearing a slacks and a dress shirt, but the complete ensemble was stunning. It made a knot form in the pit of her belly, and she wanted to jump on him and have her way with him right here, in front of the Quorum and the President, Gods be damned. But she controlled herself. She had a mission and she had made the choice since being released from the brig that she needed to think of others. She had to think of Lee and the Admiral and what they needed, before her own needs. So she had stood at attention and took only small glances at Lee.

Lee looked like he was having a hard time concentrating on what was going on, and he kept looking at her with a little…. smirk that drove her crazy with curiosity. "What is he smirking at?" she wondered, also not paying attention to who was speaking. When it was over they could not even find time to say a simple "hi," to each other.

As Kara walked to the Raptor that would take her, Natalie and the Marine guards back to Galactica, she saw a porter that had served water during the meeting walking towards her. The corridor was smaller than Galactica's, so she did not mind that she and the porter bumped each other in passing. The porter apologized for her clumsiness and asked if Kara was all right. Kara, whose mind was on Lee, mumbled that she was fine. The porter held out a hand to Kara. "You dropped this," she said. Kara was so preoccupied that she mumbled a "thanks" as she grabbed what ever was in the porter's hand and put it in her pocket as she boarded the Raptor without even looking at it.

Later, Kara was in her office, she thought it was funny just thinking of it as _her_ office, staring at the papers she had just signed. It was Lee's old office. She hadn't changed anything since taking over as CAG. She wanted it to remind her of him. Especially now that all she had was long periods of time between mere glimpses of him, which brought her back to the papers in her hand. Divorce papers, sent by Romo Lampkin for her to sign, ending her farce of a marriage to Sam. She thought it would be harder, and that there would be more guilt at defying the gods. But there was only a little, and it was for all the time wasted, and the hurt that her fear caused.

She threw the papers on her already full desk and stood up. A small clank at her feet caught her attention. She looked down at the small object and noticed that it was what the porter had handed her, what she had "dropped." But Kara had never seen it before. She wondered how it had gotten out of her pocket. She reached into the pocket that she had slipped the object into and felt the small hole that she had been meaning to sew up for a while now, but never got around to.

She bent and picked up the small object to look at it. At first glance it looked like a blank dog tag. But she saw that it in fact had an engraving of a pair of wings on it, like the ones that made up the insignia of a Viper pilot. In the middle of the wings were two letters. **S&A. **She immediately thought of how she and Lee were always talked about at in the same breath, the great team of Starbuck and Apollo.

Thinking of Lee brought the kiss they shared in the brig full force back to her mind, and she had to close her eyes for a second as all the feelings and emotions of that kiss washed over her. She clenched her fist around the tag until her emotions calmed a little and she could think clearly again. She opened her eyes and turned the tag over to look at the other side. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat. On the reverse side from the winged **S&A**, was inscribed a statement followed by the mysterious letter code she had been trying to piece together for months.

It said, "**I Believe In You. L.A.L.K.T." **Instantly the code made perfect sense and she felt a little stupid at not being able to put two and two together. _Lee_ was the one to sneak her the chocolate. _He_ was the one to get her paints and brushes to save her sanity on the _Demetrius. _He must have talked to Helo and used his political connections to get the gifts to her. Kara fingered the letters and allowed the meaning to wash over her. "**Lee Adama Loves Kara Thrace.**" She had hoped that he still loved her after everything that had happened. He had given her the idea that he did with the kiss in the brig, but his not talking to her since leaving the Galactica had hurt and confused her. But she now realized that he _had_ been talking to her in the only way he knew she would listen, through symbols. Symbols of love and devotion.

Kara had to talk to Lee right now; she had to let him know that she was now free to explore what they felt for each other. She had to let him know that he and the gifts he gave to her had saved her. He deserved to know that she had wanted to be with him since the first time she saw him. But most importantly she had to let him know that she was not afraid to love him anymore.

She clutched the dog tag in her hand and ran to the hatch and threw it open. She stopped dead in her tracks. There he was, slightly disheveled and looking tired, poised to knock on the hatch. His sport coat was unbuttoned, his tie was loose and hanging around his neck, the top three buttons of his dress shirt were undone, and he had a scruffy five o'clock shadow forming. Finally, in his hand was a single red rose. Kara felt a surge in the pit of her stomach hit her just looking at him.

"Hey Kara," he said looking at her with a ghost of a smile that had a hint of desire. "Did you get….mmph." Lee tried to speak, but was tackled by Kara, mouth fusing to his as she backed him up to the bulkhead across the corridor from the hatch. Neither Kara or Lee noticed a few of the pilots passing by, giving them amused looks, Helo in particular. As they neared the turn in the corridor, Helo and the other pilots heard what they had been waiting over three years to hear.

"Kara Thrace Loves Lee Adama."

And all was good.


End file.
